Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com takes a look at Baltimore's rotation and notes the club would be willing to deal Chris Tillman. Tillman, 23, posted a 5.52 ERA with 6.7 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in 13 big league starts last year.

The Orioles' interest in adding relief pitchers could open the door forJim Johnsonto return to the rotation and Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com is all for it. Melewski could see Johnson thriving in a starting role as he has enough quality pitches to make the transition.

That’s not really accurate. He was never a power guy. In reality, he has a nasty spike curve, and AA and AAA hitters don’t hit offspeed stuff nearly as well as ML guys. They also recognize the offspeed stuff better so he doesnt get the swinging strikes he gets in the minors.

(Having been a pitcher through HS and throwing a K-curve or spike curve or whatever you wanna call it) I think that it requires more commitment than a traditional CB. You only have 1 finger imparting spin on the ball so you need to really snap your wrist and pray it goes where you want it to. When Tillman struggled locating his 4-seamer and didn’t get swinging strikes on his curve he started aiming it more to try to get called strikes. This KILLS your spin and movement.

That’s why you’d see him get ahead in a count and throw a ridiculous curve, but then 2 pitches later throw a spinner. That’s my 2 cents at least.

Haha thanks, yea I finally figured out Disqus, although for some reason it took away like 300 likes when I signed up.

As for Minecraft, I played a decent amount over the Summer but have since cooled on it, especially given the grind of law school (which I am in). I am pretty ADD, so if anything fun exists, I probably have done it (legal things lol).

Disqus pulled my pic of Flacco in the snow from some other account when I signed up. Not sure how it worked but I went with it.

I’m hot and cold with minecraft, I just watched a documentary about Macchu Pichu and it got me hooked again. I’m a huge gamer and sports nut so I’m with you on the ADD part. Shoot me an e-mail: nevercloser07@yahoo.com. I have a new website (which has been featured on here twice in the blog section) and would like to get your thoughts. You could also become a writer if you’re interested. I’m getting my MBA so it’s tough to post as much as I’d like.

I think he started trying to overthrow and just lost his concentration, confidence and rhythm. His breaking pitches stopped breaking. He has a ton of potential still, but he is going to need to rediscover the touch he had on his breaking pitches, but more importantly regain the confidence in them.

I think he started trying to overthrow and just lost his concentration, confidence and rhythm. His breaking pitches stopped breaking. He has a ton of potential still, but he is going to need to rediscover the touch he had on his breaking pitches, but more importantly regain the confidence in them.

Plus bringing him up on a team with no run support and no bullpen is HORRIBLE for the confidence of a young pitcher. Oh you pitched an 8 inning shutout but Mike Gonzalez/Kevin Gregg blew your win in the 9th? Thats ok, just do it again next time.

Plus bringing him up on a team with no run support and no bullpen is HORRIBLE for the confidence of a young pitcher. Oh you pitched an 8 inning shutout but Mike Gonzalez/Kevin Gregg blew your win in the 9th? Thats ok, just do it again next time.

I look at JJs numbers from when he was a starter in the minors, and quite frankly I’m not overwhelmed. He was average at best at AA and AAA. He started to shine in the majors as a reliever. I know he’s got “starter stuff” (which I believe applies to anyone who can throw more than one pitch for a strike), but to me a dominating reliever is more valuable than a middling starter.

Of course, if we had five middling starters we wouldn’t need to entertain the idea of putting Johnson in the rotation. Unfortunately, we don’t even have that many.

Really, did you watch Chris Davis at Third Base during the last month of the season?
I like him at first base. Davis himself has even said he feels more comfortable at first base. This is a problem because Reynolds is currently penciled in at first.

This is going to sound like the dumbest thing I’ve ever said, but if you take away the errors Reynolds looked good at third. It just seems like he has “senior moments” out there, but his fielding otherwise is pretty good.

From what I saw watching the games, most of Reynolds’ errors were throwing errors caused by rushing, either because he was trying to make a play he shouldn’t have made or because he was rushing throws he didn’t need to rush. His glove is very good, and that showed at 1B. His arm is pretty unreliable, at least last season.

Tillman needs to go somewhere free of expectations and work with a pitching coach who is capable of rebuilding him from the ground up. He’s going to need a lot of work, but he is still young enough and has the stuff to turn it around. Pitching in a bigger park and getting away from the DH would probably benefit him, as well.

Reynolds may K a lot (understatement), but having him hitting 5th or 6th in a good lineup for roughly $7 million dollars doesn’t sound like that bad of an idea. He still is a major power threat and could force more cookies for the guys in front of him. That of course is if the O’s traded him to a better team.

Tillman should have never been regarded highly. He does the same thing now as he did in the minors, scouts should have seen that his success was due to minor leagues chasing bad pitches and not being able to hit the high fastball like MLB players can. As soon as I saw him throw one pitch I knew he would never amount to anything in the majors.

Now the Orioles there is a team that wastes money on power hitters and big names that don’t help them win.

Spend big on Darvish, then add some of those guys and they might finally compete again.

The Rays can win in that division. The Yankees are getting old at many positions with players too expensive and/or entrenched to replace. The Red Sox won’t collapse like this year every year, but this is the second straight year they sat out the post-season.
And with the one game wild card playoff, three teams from the same division can get in.

I’m not sure I get the negativity towards Davis. His minor league numbers are sick. Much better than Yonder Alonso, the new golden boy of the hot stove league, even with accounting for differences in the leagues.

Most of last year”s rotation had less than 1 year of experience in the majors. We can’t label them flops yet. But we can’t shuttle them back and forth between majors and minors like we did with Tillman. Commit a half season to each in the rotation (either majors or minors) and then re-evaluate. Or as someone else suggests, put 1 or 2 in the bullpen and see how they do. Trade Guthrie if you get someone of value, but otherwise, leave the rotation alone and see. Britton and Matusz have high upside, while Tillman (you can’t rule out someone who’s only 23 yet) and Arrietta have enough promise to fill out the rotation.

Reynolds is a class act too. I personally love having him on the team. People who bash his defense do so rightfully, but it was like night and day with him. Some days you’d think he was a super-hero at third, his glove looked so good, and some days he would muff everything that was hit at him.